Less than a year after being in the eye of an economic storm, China’s manufacturing heartland might at last be showing some signs of recovery.
Guangdong province - labeled one of the key “workshops of the world” - was on the firing line at the end of 2008 when North American and European consumers stopped buying their goods.
Exports collapsed by 18.6 percent in the first half of this year, according to Customs statistics, as vital markets for the province’s electronics, clothing and household goods manufacturers dried up.
Only six months ago it was reported that 600,000 migrant workers, who make up a substantial proportion of the labor force, had decided to go home.